Honorary Member

Maria Guerin

Maria has worked in respiratory medicine at University hospital Aintree, Liverpool since qualifying in 1989.
She became one on the first Lung Cancer Clinical nurse specialist (CNS) in the North West in 1997.
Along with a colleague in the Manchester area, Maria co-founded the North West lung cancer nurses group, with the aim of support, education and development in 1997. This was thought to be the first such group in the UK of its kind at the time and subsequently led to the formation of the National Lung Cancer Forum for Nurses.(NLCFN) now LCNUK .

Maria was NLCFN committee member for 12 years including 3 as chairperson; she completed her term of office in 2008.
During her time as chair she was a keen advocate of true Multidisciplinary team (MDT) working, including highlighting the importance and protecting the role of the Lung CNS .
In collaboration with the United Kingdom Lung Cancer Coalition (UKLCC) conducted the NLCFN first parliamentary “fly in” accentuating the importance of specialist nurse support for all patients with Lung cancer and mesothelioma.

Maria has been involved in many projects highlighting CNS influence in improving patient and carer experience across the thoracic oncology pathway.
Maria was a member of the NLCFN Research Interest Group (RIG) and has contributed to many of the research projects over the past decades. Maria has published papers on various clinical topics including developmental roles in cancer services and nurse led management of patients receiving oral therapies, she has presented at conferences both nationally and internationally on a wide range of topics

Since 2010 Maria has represented the UK on the International Thoracic Oncology Nurses Forum, (ITONF) of which she was a founding member and completed her official term of office this year stepping down as chairperson of 4 years – she maintains an active role as advisor / mentor to the committee faculty.
Maria was an inaugural member of the MNAT (Mesothelioma Nurse Action Team) and was a Mesothelioma UK Clinical nurse specialist for the Merseyside and Cheshire region 2017 -2022.
Maria has a long history of representation on various committees and advisory bodies locally, nationally and internationally-collaborating on policy and educational initiatives and publications.

Maria is currently a quality matron at Liverpool hospitals with a main focus on the implementation of the End of life care and bereavement SWAN model of care